Damaged
by wowza101azwow
Summary: Meg acknowledges her true state of being as jaded and damaged, an unfit match for young, naive Hercules. After realizing the fantasy of a fresh life would be impossible with the demons of her past, she decides to return to her violently aggressive owner and the malevolent god of the underworld. (Rated M for language, minor violence, and sexually explicit content)
1. Chapter 1

Megara watched as Hercules approached the Olympic gates, surrounded by those of his kin— his gold skin glowing in that inexplicable manner, matching the glimmering auras of the gods around him. She sighed and turned away. In a perfect world he would run back to her, join her, his immortal, glimmering hands entwining with her mortal ones. In her mind he would look to his father, the God of all gods and ask to join the fragile human kind, leave his home, lose his immortality. This wasn't the reality of the matter, however. She turned away. Even if he were to live as a mortal, she knew that they wouldn't have worked out. His naivety was extreme; he fell in love too quickly and her mind, twisted by the pains of her life so far, had almost tricked her into experiencing any real love towards the boy. Her false hope, from the beginning, was all conjured by the darkness in her very own thoughts. She left before he had the chance. She was damaged, and belonged with the likes of Hades.

Hades, after removing himself from the river of Styx, naturally, was beyond enraged. His skin remained alit with flame, incapable of diffusing with time as he played the scenes of his failed battle and the despised Hercules in his head. Stiff in his throne of dust and stone, he glared blankly at the darkness of the hall. The echoes of the hushed whimpering of all three heads of Cerberus and the steady drips of stale cave-water were all that could be heard in the damp kingdom of the underworld. Pain and Panic were nowhere to be found.

"Hercules," he finally sneered to himself, "that glowing, empty-headed, _hero_ cannot bring a mortal bitch like Megara into his little mountain home, now can he?" he asked the shadows.

"So, the decision of whether to exchange little, mortal meggy-poo for his life-long desire of being with his true kind and family will be…quite difficult.." he sneered at this thought. "Either way, he loses…but especially if he choses the mortal spice-ling over his cloud-palace if I- no- _when _I discover where…" A voice interjected,

"What if the spice-ling decided to stay in this hell-hole? A girl like me making her own big-girls decisions..."

Megara knew that Hade's state of anger would be dangerously high at this point and with her head tilted down ever-the-slightest, walked in front of the throne, causing such surprise to the God, the raging, orange flames from his skin ceased to burn and calmed back to blue.

"Well, well, if it isn't my little Megara back to hell, coming for more. Can you handle it after become so soft and weak? I really should have killed you ages ago, my sweet." He paused in speculation, "Although late is better than never, am I right, lovebird?"

He appeared in front of her immediately, his hand around her neck, slightly squeezing her airway. She flinched once, and regained her spark as she looked into the yellow eyes of his sadistically grinning face.

She found what little voice was available through the clenching of his bony fingers, "I have come back to serve you, oh oneness!" Her sarcasm managed to leak through the hand wrapped around her neck.

"Oh?" He tightened his hand.

"Please." She managed to cough out with more seriousness. She clawed at his grip with both hands.

He dropped her. "What's in it for me, nutmeg?" He grinned evilly at her fallen form at his feet.


	2. Chapter 2

Hades bent down to brush a stray ringlet of hair from her worried face. She flinched, bringing her gaze from the floor to his eyes. His hands were surprisingly gentle contrasting against the mocking grin of his face.

"I will willingly finish off my servitude that I foolishly had chosen to leave behind," she said robotically.

Exasperated at her own lack of vigor, she returned her gaze to the floor. Her fingers worked out the soreness of her reddened neck.

"Meg, Meg, Meg," he abruptly rose and appeared in his throne. With a flick of his wrist and wave of his hand, grapes appeared from summoned smoke in his grasp.

"You see," he started, popping a grape in his mouth, "Things aren't really fitting in together, babe. Your little plea isn't making much sense."

He looked at Meg unenthusiastically, almost disgusted by her humanness in his Godly presence. She recoiled.

Continuing, his temper began overtaking him, "Maybe it's the whole failure to overtake Olympus and defeat Hercules thing, but I'm not in the mood for this SHIT!" His flames had converted from calm blue to wild and fiery, and from screaming the last half of his speech, his breath was short and quick. The grapes combusted into flame and ash.

"Look, Hades, I can't undo what has been done, but I would be more sane if _something_ -even the whole soul-life debt thing- would remain as a fixed part of my life. Hercules didn't keep his part of the deal, anyhow. I'm yours." She trailed off in a whisper at the mention of the name.

_"He probably already forgot about me up there in the perfect cloud palaces," _she thought to herself, _"I belong here."_

She pushed herself up weakly, slowly rising from the ash and dust that now was coating her dress. Her nimble, shaking fingers brushed away the debris, smoothing the worn fabric against her tired body as she cleaned. Hades sharply studied her, and at this moment regained his composure.

"So, you are trying to tell me," he smiled and began to laugh, "that you, my little temptress of an angel, Miss Oh-Hercules-take-my-life-for-yours, has decided to chuck Goldilocks up there, to stay down here," he pause for effect, "in the UNDERWORLD, because she wants the stability of being somewhere."

Hearing her intentions put in this manner was slightly painful. The bandage of the situation was ripped off; she sounded crazy. She was…well…

"Truly fucked up." Hades said aloud to himself. The situation was supremely strange. No one had ever willingly offered his or her life to an eternity of servitude under Hades.

"You know where to go. Same room. I'll leave you a gown…that one has taken quite the beating, sugarplum." He seemed amused by the whole situation and disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

Meg looked down at her dress, ripped and torn in various places. During her inspection, Hades returned again with another snap, causing her to jump in surprise, adding, "Also, if you have any shit going on, my little minion, please don't cross me tonight, tomorrow, or for that matter, at all. Not a good idea."

Vanishing again, Meg found herself alone with an empty throne and a cold draft, in a dark room.

***Hey people! :) So, I'm kind of iffy on how this is going. Any feedback would be lovely and appreciated! I am hoping to post new chapters every other day (ish). They're super short, but I'm super impatient, so I hope you enjoy these tidbits anyhow.***


	3. Chapter 3

The darkness didn't even bother Meg. She knew where to get lanterns, knew the twists and turns of the underworld, and knew the way to her room, better than she knew herself.

When she had first made her deal with Hades, she had been a crazed fool, in_ love_. She gave up her heart and –literally- her soul for the man she _loved_. Blinded by her foolish love, she ended up indebted to the ruler and god of the underworld, serving him in the shadows while the lover she had given everything to went off with another.

She sighed at these bitter memories. Although she truly believed she was strengthened by these experiences, she knew they had numbed her to a certain degree.

When she had made it into her room, Meg fell onto her bed and looked at the ceiling. It was so natural being back on her mattress, feeling the steady cool draft of the underworld seep in from under the door. She propped herself up. Feeling lethargic and, with sore muscles and aching bones, she decided to prepare a bath.

The bathing chamber was an extension of her personal quarters, separated by a sheer, artfully embroidered cloth, which hung magnificently in the entryway. She tied the cloth, swept to a side, and entered the bathing chamber, bare feet against dark marble, to prepare the water to temperature over an ever-flaming heating stove. When the water became scalding, she poured it into the black-blue marble tub, and repeated the ordeal patiently until the tub was filled.

When she walked back into the main room she was faced with the grimy pink and green backs of Pain and Panic, as they smelled oils they were in the process of placing out with her towel on the bed.

_"These two idiot boy-creatures can be up to absolutely no good,"_ she thought to herself. She coughed, placing her hands on her hips as she waited to be discovered.

Hearing Meg's agitated cough, the two minions jumped up in surprise.

"Megara," Pain started slowly pronouncing each syllable of her name.

Panic quickly interjected, "We just came by to drop these trinkets for-."

"Why'd ya come back?" Pain interrupted.

Smiling, Panic added, "Yeah, why?"

They both stupidly grinned up at her, batting their eyelashes as their curiosity begged to know.

She mimicked their grins, batting her lashes back at them sardonically and replied, "Isn't it getting late for two little youngsters like you to be running about bothering the good folk of the underworld? I'm sure Hades sure is missing his two favorite henchmen." She bent down to their level and sarcastically patted their heads.

They both immediately morphed into the bodies of the two little boys who had been "caught" under the massive rock before the famous battle between Hercules and the multi-headed hydra.

"Gee thanks, Missus," they mocked her in unison.

"Cute. Now scram, mongrels." She bit back, pushing herself up from her lowered stance.

They skipped, while madly giggling, out of the door, transfiguring back into their natural forms as they went.

"Ugh."

Meg walked over to the bed to pick up the oils and perfumes. Lavender and Rose—just what she needed for her bath! Sometimes she really did enjoy her servitude under Hades.

**So much fluff right now. I know. I still am kind of weird about this story, so please leave input, suggestions, comments, etc. I am updating at this point because I like short chapters so, once again, I am sorry they are short. Expect another maybe even late tonight!**


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